Prof. PLO Lumumba: UN General Assembly has become a “jamboree” of empty speeches as global conflicts rage Kenyan lawyer, academic and Pan-Africanist Professor P.L.O. Lumumba has dismissed the United Nations General Assembly as little more than a “jamboree where heads of states have few minutes of fame. Speaking in a video interview with Thee Alfa […]

Prof. PLO Lumumba: UN General Assembly has become a “jamboree” of empty speeches as global conflicts rage

Kenyan lawyer, academic and Pan-Africanist Professor P.L.O. Lumumba has dismissed the United Nations General Assembly as little more than a “jamboree where heads of states have few minutes of fame.

Speaking in a video interview with Thee Alfa House, Lumumba questioned the fundamental usefulness of the United Nations itself, asking whether an organisation that cannot stop major conflicts including what he referred to as genocide retains any real purpose.

Lumumba traced the UN’s origins, noting it succeeded the League of Nations in the aftermath of the Second World War. He referenced the Nuremberg trials and the Geneva Conventions as mechanisms intended to restrain powerful members, particularly the permanent members of the Security Council (China, Russia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States). Yet he argued that the organisation has failed to live up to that mandate.

His comments come as world leaders gather in New York for the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, a forum already facing widespread criticism over its inability to resolve ongoing wars and humanitarian crises.

Lumumba’s intervention adds a prominent African voice to growing calls for structural reform of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council, which many African leaders argue remains stuck in the geopolitical realities of 1945.